Montana Democrat Baucus rules out 7th Senate term WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana announced plans Tuesday to retire at the end of his term after a career of enormous power and notable independence, producing both collaboration and conflict with fellow Democrats on major tax and health care legislation. “I don’t want to die here with my boots on. There is life beyond Congress,” the 71-year-old Baucus said in a telephone interview with The Associated Pr...

FAA followed Boeing’s lead on 787 battery testing WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators let Boeing help write the safety conditions for the problematic battery system in its beleaguered 787 “Dreamliner,” prescribe how to test it and carry out those tests itself, according to testimony and documents released at a hearing Tuesday. As airlines prepare to resume flying the 787 after a three-month grounding, the National Transportation Safety Board is looking at how the Federal Aviation Administrat...

Reid: Democrats to ease cuts with war savings WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans and Democrats gridlocked Tuesday over competing proposals to ease the impact of across-the-board spending cuts blamed for furloughs of air traffic controllers and flight delays for millions of travelers. With Republicans blaming the administration for the inconvenience, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed immediate passage of legislation to scrap the spending cuts and make up the money by cancelling ...

Congress slows military efforts to saveWASHINGTON (AP) — Parked around the airstrip at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland are more than a dozen massive C-5A Galaxy transport planes. There is no money to fly them, repair them or put pilots in the cockpits, but Congress rejected the Air Force’s bid to retire them. So, in the weeks and months ahead, crews will tow the planes around the Texas tarmac a bit to make sure the tires don’t rot, then send them back into exile until they can fina...

Report: Richest 7 percent got richer during recovery WASHINGTON (AP) — The richest Americans got richer during the first two years of the economic recovery while average net worth declined for the other 93 percent of U.S. households, says a report released Tuesday. The upper 7 percent of households owned 63 percent of the nation’s total household wealth in 2011, up from 56 percent in 2009, said the report from the Pew Research Center, which analyzed new Census Bureau data released last month. Th...

UN official hopeful about 2015 climate talks DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Governments are more serious and the impact of climate change is more dramatic, improving chances of a groundbreaking global warming pact in 2015 in contrast with the failure of such an effort in 2009, the U.N. climate chief said Tuesday. The climate change talks in Copenhagen were a resounding failure, setting back the movement to control global warming. Even so, the U.N. official, Christiana Figueres, is op...

Tax-free Internet shopping jeopardized by bill WASHINGTON (AP) — Tax-free shopping on the Internet could be in jeopardy under a bill making its way through the Senate. The bill would empower states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where a shopper lives. Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. ...

Napolitano: Immigration bill would boost security WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweeping immigration legislation would improve U.S. security by helping authorities to know who is in the country, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Tuesday, as supporters of an immigration overhaul marshaled arguments against opponents trying to slow it down in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. Testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Napolitano said a wide-ranging bill circulating in Congr...

Limping al-Qaida offshoot rearms with Twitter Battered by a French-led military campaign in Mali, al-Qaida’s North African arm is trying something new to stay relevant: Twitter. The PR campaign by the terror network seeks to tap into social grievances and champion mainstream causes such as unemployment, all in bid to reverse decline and win new followers. The hearts-and-minds approach echoes an outreach program the group had been trying for years in Mali, where it provided food, services ...

Dems, GOP press Obama administration on drone use WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats and Republicans on Tuesday challenged the Obama administration to explicitly spell out its justification for using drones for targeted killings amid growing concerns about unchecked powers of the presidency and Americans’ civil liberties. “Even as President Obama commands a military with the most sophisticated weapons known to man, including the weaponized drones used in targeted killing operations, his autho...

Bush library exhibits: 9/11, war, Katrina, recount DALLAS (AP) — A tour of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum begins in a bright area representing his early domestic agenda, but with one turn, visitors find themselves in a darkened room surrounded by chilling reminders of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. This contrast, symbolizing Bush’s abrupt shift in priorities less than eight months into his first term, is among the most poignant exhibits at a museum being dedicated this wee...

Arkansas turns to different lethal injection drug LITTLE ROCK (AP) — After surrendering its supply of a lethal injection drug to federal agents in 2011, Arkansas turned to a somewhat surprising place to look for another drug: a list from lawyers for several death row inmates. The state Department of Correction told The Associated Press last week that it decided to use phenobarbital after attorneys for several death row inmates mentioned in a lawsuit that it might be an available drug. Phenoba...

Gun control forces seek new path after big loss WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a powerful moment on the White House lawn when thousands of guests, the loved ones of slain crime victims among them, crowded in as President Bill Clinton signed a sweeping crime bill that was six years in the making and included a hotly disputed ban on assault weapons. “Today, at last, the waiting ends,” Clinton said on that day in 1994. “Today, the bickering stops, the era of excuses is over.” Hardly. Two decades and...

Attorney: Scant evidence in Mississippi ricin case OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Federal authorities have produced scant evidence linking a Mississippi man to the mailing of ricin-laced letters to the president and a senator, his attorney says. Christi McCoy said after a court hearing Friday that the government has offered no evidence to prove her client, Paul Kevin Curtis, had possession of any ricin or the seed from which it is extracted — castor beans. An FBI agent testified during the hearing that ...

World finance leaders issue sober assessment WASHINGTON (AP) — World finance leaders issued a somber assessment on Saturday of the global economy, saying the recovery remains uneven with growth and jobs in short supply. The steering committee for the 188-nation International Monetary Fund issued a final communique that called for decisive action to bolster growth. However, the major economies remained at odds over the best mix of policies to pursue. “An uneven recovery is emerging but gr...

Experts: Ricin like that in letters easy to make OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — The ricin mailed to the president and a U.S. senator is relatively easy to make but generally can’t be used to target a large number of people, experts say. A Mississippi man, Paul Kevin Curtis, 45, has been charged with mailing letters laced with the naturally occurring toxin to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge. Curtis has denied making the ricin and mailing the letters. The FBI has n...

Poll: Public pessimism on economy is increasing WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third year in a row, the nation’s economic recovery has hit a springtime soft spot. Reflecting that weakness, only 1 in 4 Americans now expects his or her own financial situation to improve over the next year, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows. The sour mood is undermining support for President Barack Obama’s economic stewardship and for government in general. The poll shows that just 46 percent of Americans appro...

Gun votes carry big risks for Dems in rural states WASHINGTON (AP) — There is little mystery, from a campaign viewpoint, at least, about the eight senators who crossed party lines in Wednesday’s showdown vote on background checks for gun buyers. The four Democrats who voted against broader background checks are from largely rural states that voted heavily against President Barack Obama last fall. Three of the four Republicans who voted in favor of the measure are from states Obama carried easi...

US set to expand nonlethal aid to Syrian rebels WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is poised to significantly expand its non-lethal military aid to the Syrian opposition as European nations weigh easing an arms embargo to potentially supply the rebels with arms and increase pressure on President Bashar Assad to step down. The European Union arms embargo expires at the end of May and may be allowed to expire or be modified to only block weapons that are headed to Assad’s government. If that...

Denver pot holiday bringing crowds, tight security DENVER (AP) — As tens of thousands of people gather to celebrate and smoke marijuana in Denver, police will be out in full force. But it’s not the pot smoking they’re concerned about at the yearly event, billed as the nation’s largest April 20 celebration. Instead, police say they’re focused on crowd security in light of attacks that killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. “We’re aware of the events in Boston,” said Denver poli...